(from "Chairman's Report of the Sixteenth Meeting")

Considering the work done in the Antarctic season 1963/64 the Committee of Four confirmed their earlier recommendation that there should be no further hunting of blue and humpback whales. In connection with the blue whale it was thought that continued exploitation of the pygmy blue whale in an open area was dangerous and increased the risk of exterminating the blue whale. Fin whales they considered to be now depleted to such an extent that the stock would only sustain a steady yield of 4,000 whales, whereas if whaling were stopped for twenty-four years a maximum annual yield of 20,000 whales could thereafter be obtained. In order to increase the present stock and gradually build it up the annual catch should be below 4,000 whales; the further below the better. For sei whales the Committee thought that the present sustainable yield lay between 2,400 and 8,400 most likely nearer the lower figure and that the maximum sustainable yield was probably within this range. As the 1963/1964 catch of sei whales was near the upper limit of the range just quoted, the Committee concluded that the stock of sei whales was declining and that its maximum sustainable yield was probably nearer the lower than the upper end of the above-mentioned range.

During the later part of the meeting, Mr. S.J. Holt referred to the proposal that the Commission had made to the Director-General of F.A.O. for the collaboration of the later with the Commission in making future assessments of the Antarctic whale stocks. He said that the Director-General had indicated that this collaboration could not be expected if the Commission permitted the results of the scientific studies to be used merely for the organization of the more efficient destruction of the resource for which it was responsible.

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